


If home is where the heart is...

by myqueenyoursavior



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, if you like him don't read, mentions Hook
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 10:31:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12430938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myqueenyoursavior/pseuds/myqueenyoursavior
Summary: Set after the events of 7x02.





	If home is where the heart is...

Keeping her steps steady, she walked down a path in the middle of the woods. It was a new different realm, and still to her it looked exactly like the place she had called home all those years ago: the Enchanted Forest. She had yet left another place that was her home: Storybrooke. Which, if she was being honest with herself, had always felt more like being at home than everywhere else ever did. That, of course, was a feeling that was stronger in her when Henry was still there. That was why, the moment he had asked her to stay behind, she had jumped at the opportunity. She had missed Henry tremendously, and had hated the fact that she had missed some years of his life, of course. There was something else still eating her up inside, though…  
  
Emma had been at the office just the day before they had gotten the call from their son. ‘Their son,’ those words had her stomach feeling like it was flipping on itself re-thinking of that memory. The thing that had connected just the two of them - the thing neither of them used to share with any other living soul - was about to be taken away from them. Or at least, it was about to be taken away from her.  
That thought alone had made her feel sick, but she needed to go through the memory in order to understand what she had missed.  
  
Emma had knocked lightly at her office door, and had put her head around it. She had asked if she could come in, Regina had noticed her face was as pale as ever. She had started noticing the slow, but consistent change, all those years ago when she had started dating the pirate. So, she had told her to come in, smiling tightly, trying not to let discomfort at her ever so sick looking friend be seen. Emma had sat down in front of her, at the very edge of the chair. The moment she had tried to make eye contact with her, she had looked away. Letting it slide, she had asked what had brought her there. Emma had taken a long breath, and then, still looking at the floor, she had answered. ‘There is something I have to tell you, Regina. Something you won’t be happy about,’ she had told her. Trying so desperately not to come to every possible wrong conclusion, she had gently told her that she could tell her anything; that whatever it was, she was there for her. Emma had made long minutes pass, then she had finally looked up. ‘I can’t…,’ she had said, with those teary puppy eyes of hers that always crushed Regina’s heart a little bit. Then she had bolted out of the office, never to be seen again.  
  
Or at least until they were saying goodbye in this new strange land she was currently in. If that could’ve been called a goodbye, anyway. She had nodded, letting her know she could overcome whatever it was she was so afraid of talking to her about. And Emma had looked not only as pale as ever, but also like someone who was fighting her every instinct to fall apart.  
Then, later on, Henry had informed her that his other mother was pregnant. She had been the one to have to keep it together that time.  
  
A whole week had passed since then. They had been too busy with trying to find Cinderella, that she hadn’t allowed herself to think about it. It was both good and bad for her: good, because she hadn’t wanted to worry her son; bad, because she hadn’t had the time necessary for her to process everything.  
  
When Henry, a few hours earlier, had awkwardly told her he wanted to try and spend some alone time with Cinderella, she had been more than happy to give them some privacy. To give herself some space and most importantly, some alone time.  
Ditching other Hook had been more than easy: he was as annoying and selfish as the other one. He had made an attempt at a joke (which she wasn’t sure if he actually saw it as flirting) when he had seen her venturing away on her own. At her sarcastic remark back, he hadn’t said anything else, and she was glad for that. Glad she could get away from that face for a little while; that face that so much reminded her of the other man, the other Hook. She still couldn’t believe there were two of them.  
‘One for all the existing realms wasn’t enough?’ she had asked herself. So, she had walked away, cursing him under her breath. Cursing them both, and every possible version of the pirate that was probably out there, waiting in the dark. Because that man had always felt like a disease; like some kind of infection you couldn’t get rid of, unless you killed the very source of it. And, apparently, the source of it, the Hook that was now back in Storybrooke, had been like a cockroach that refused to die.  
  
Now, walking down these unknown woods, she had wondered why she had thought Emma was about to tell her she was sick. Most importantly, she was wondering why the idea of Emma being pregnant with Hook’s baby made her still feel sick to her stomach. She did have a hint, of course. She just didn’t want to admit it to herself. Because what good could it do to you to admit to yourself that you are still in love with someone who isn’t available? Especially now that said someone was in another realm, and was about to form a family with someone else.  
That last thought alone had her head spinning. She leaned with her right hand against the nearest tree, and she focused her attention back to her surroundings. She had been subconsciously attracted to one lonely yellow flower growing next to the tree that was currently supporting her. The yellow was so bright that it reminded her of the car she so much loved to hate: Emma’s ‘metal coffin on wheels.’  
  
Thinking back at that, her mind brought up another memory. The memory of her and Emma being both too stubborn to let the other be killed. Emma had said they weren’t going to just sacrifice her; she had poofed herself out of the car the moment she had seen their plan was putting Emma in too much danger. ‘Regina?!’ Emma had said, as she was poofing away, fear for her safety clear in her voice. She felt like she could almost still hear the voice in her head, when…  
  
“Regina?!?” Emma’s voice was actually coming from behind her.  
  
She turned around carefully. Both because she still felt a bit lightheaded, and because she was afraid it wasn’t real.  
  
“What are you doing?” asked Emma, as the lonely yellow flower behind her came into view “stopping to smell the roses?”  
  
“Emma?” she said, still in shock “is that really you?”  
  
“Yeah, of course it’s me,” she replied, hands deep in her jeans’ pockets, unconsciously licking her lips at the sight of Regina in Enchanted Forest like clothes “who else would it be?”  
  
“I thought you were…” the words refusing to come out of her mouth.  
  
“I think I need to explain a few things, don’t I?” Emma chuckled while saying that, and brought a hand to the back of her head. Then, she was taking a few steps toward her; which was a first, considering she was always the one jumping back at every possible sign of them sharing personal space.  
  
Regina simply nodded at that. There was too much going on at once in her head, she was afraid of saying the wrong thing.  
  
“The other day, when I came to your office, I told you I had news.”  
  
“Yes,” she swallowed hard “that you are…”  
  
“I am not.”  
  
“You aren’t?”  
  
“No. I came to your office to tell you I thought I was sick.”  
  
“You are, aren’t you?” she thought back at the first worst conclusion she had came to. Because that was how it always went: everyone she ever loved eventually died. Not that she had ever loved anyone as much as Henry, or the beautiful wonderful idiot standing in front of her in that moment. But it still felt like that was her own personal karma. So, she still mentally kicked herself for allowing her mind to go to the worst conclusion.  
  
“No, I am not,” Emma gave her a reassuring smile “I got the final results today.”  
  
“What about what you told Henry?” she asked, her hands reaching behind her in order to regain some kind of support from the tree once again.  
  
“That I was pregnant?”  
  
She gulped loudly, then nodded once. Twice. Then shook her head to take that thought out of her head.  
  
“I told that to Henry so he wouldn’t worry. I didn’t consider the fact that you might have decided to stay here. Plus, that was never a possible option.”  
  
“How?” she questioned with a raised eyebrow. Her eyes asking more than her single word question could.  
  
“How is it impossible for me to be pregnant with Hook’s baby?” Emma let out a laughter, which was quite concerning given the circumstances.  
  
“Yes!?”  
  
“I’ll tell you how: that’s what happens when your boyfriend - then husband - comes home drunk every night. You put him into bed, half naked, because he always manages to end up at the top of the stairs with his pants down his ankles. Then he wakes up every morning thinking he has given you the best night of your life. And when he starts asking why you haven’t made a ‘little Hook’ yet - yes, he says that - you tell him maybe next time.”  
  
Emma had said all that in one breath, and she couldn’t avoid noticing the teary puppy eyes had come back. She removed her hands from behind her, and tried to reach for Emma’s, then let them both fall at her own side.  
  
Emma noticed the gesture, but kept explaining.  
  
“Plus, I have never been interested in him that way. I was deluding myself into thinking I wanted to. That I wanted that perfect life with a guy and a picket fence house. But there was nothing perfect in that life I was forcing myself to live in the last couple of years.”  
  
“I thought you were happy with him.”  
  
“That happiness was an illusion.”  
  
“Oh, Emma,” she looked straight into watery green eyes “I’m so sorry.”  
  
“Yeah, me too,” she dismissed it the same way she always did when things go too personal. She brought a hand to her head, and chuckled again.  
  
“How come did you come here, anyway?” Regina asked, moments later, tilting her head to examine her further: Emma definitely had more color on her cheeks.  
  
“Because of the way we said goodbye. Which was a crappy way of saying goodbye, by the way. That little nod you gave me? It brought back so many repressed feelings, and made me realize just how much I had screwed up. I just wanted to wait for the results first. Sorry it took me this long.”  
  
“What are you saying?”  
  
“I want you, Regina. I have wanted you since… forever. And I already have my own perfect little family with you and Henry. I don’t care if I have the picket fence or the huge house; as long as I am with you two, that is home for me.”  
  
Regina looked at the woman in front of her pouring her heart out to her; which made her own throat close up and dry, leaving her unable to say a single word.  
  
So, they did what they always did best: they let their actions speak louder than any word they could have uttered in that moment. Brown eyes met green ones, a kind of electricity - so much alike the magic they used to make together - passed between them. Then, both sets of eyes simultaneously looked down at the other woman’s lips, and then back up again. And finally, without further warning, they closed the gap between them, in order to share the kiss they had both longed for for so long.


End file.
